The Pastor's Pen
Time is an inescapable reality in our lives. All of us have clocks in our home and calendars on our phone. We look forward to weekends and dread Mondays. We have schedules and face deadlines. Parents give their children bedtimes and curfews. Everyone has memories, and everyone makes plans. Time permeates our whole lives. This is what it means to be “in time.” A better word for “in time” is temporal, which refers to the quality of being related to time. There are three ways to be related to time: earlier than, later than, and simultaneous with. All the moments and events of time are related to each other in the chronological order of earlier, later, or simultaneous. Anything that falls within this chronological order is temporal. We are temporal because some moments and events of our lives are earlier than others. Whatever you are doing in any given moment, someone else is simultaneously doing something in that same moment. To be temporal, then, just means having these temporal relations of earlier, later, and simultaneous. Having temporal relations entails two additional facts: temporal location and temporal succession. Temporal location refers to the points of time, and temporal succession refers to the passage of time. On one hand, a person has temporal location if that person’s life can be mapped onto a timeline. In other words, that person’s existence, experiences, and actions are time-stamped like the segments of a YouTube video; they occur at a time. For example, some things happen now, or yesterday, or at 2:00pm, or six years ago, or in the time of Jesus. On the other hand, a person has temporal succession if that person’s life passes through a series of moments one after another. This means a person’s existence, experiences, and actions are sequential; they occur in the order of before and after. When your alarm goes off, getting out of bed precedes brushing your teeth. One action is subsequent to the other. Having temporal succession, then, means your life has a past, present, and future. You don’t live it all at once. We now have a philosophical account of what it means to be temporal beings. But what about God? Is God temporal? Is God related to time, or is he timeless? When we say that God is “outside of time,” what we really mean is that God is not temporal, that he is completely unrelated to time. Therefore, if God is timeless, he has no temporal relations, succession, or location. Now notice the implications that follow if God is not temporal. The timeless God’s life (his existence, experiences, and actions) has no chronological order. Nothing is earlier, later, or simultaneous. When God parted the Red Sea, that action was not later than creation, nor was it earlier than today. Nothing in God’s life is before or after anything else. The incarnation of Christ was not before God heard your prayers this morning, nor did God experience the 20th century after he experienced the 1st century. Strangest of all, it is false to say that God exists now. “Now” refers to the present moment, but the timeless God is not related to the present moment. So there is no such thing as now for God, or any other time. He did not exist in the days of Jesus, nor will he exist tomorrow. What do you make of these implications? Do you really believe it’s true that God does not exist now? Is it really the case that God did not create the world before he created you? Do you believe it is biblical to say that, for God, the resurrection of Christ is not later than the crucifixion, or the second coming is not after the moon landing? Is it false that God exists simultaneously with us? If God is timeless, these are the absurdities we are committed to. Why go on believing it? It makes so much more sense biblically and philosophically to see God as temporal, i.e., that God is really related to time and that he really does exist right now. The doctrine that God is “outside time” is a traditional Christian belief that most of us assume without question, but it seems to me there are good reasons to reject it. Perhaps it is time to say goodbye to the timeless God. Grace and peace, Pastor Wesley
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Confessions of faith are extremely useful. This is true for several reasons. First, they codify the contents of Scripture in a compact form. The Bible is a big book. A confession of faith is meant to distill the great mass of biblical data into a systematic summary for the church. Second, confessions of faith clarify the central teachings of Scripture. A confession is not intended to summarize every single thing the Bible says about every single topic. Rather, the intention is to select the central doctrines and practices of Scripture and arrange them in logical sequence. This helps the church see what is more important and less important, what deserves major emphasis in the life of the church and what should be given minor emphasis. All of Scripture is the inspired word of God, but not every doctrine is equally crucial. Confessions of faith bring clarity on what is essential and what is non-essential. Third, confessions of faith simplify the central teachings of Scripture. They provide concise statements of biblical truth along with the primary passages that support that truth. If you want to know the meaning of a certain doctrine, a confession will give you a quick definition and overview of the doctrine in light of all that Scripture says. Confessions codify, clarify, and simplify the contents of biblical teaching and instruction for the faith, life, and ministry of the church. This is an extremely useful resource for pastors, teachers, and even whole denominations. As Presbyterians, we are bound by our subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was drafted and established by our Puritan forefathers in England and Scotland in 1647. It is called a “confession” because it embodies the faith that we confess to believe before God and before the world. To “subscribe” to the Westminster Confession means to pledge allegiance to uphold that confession as a secondary authority under the ultimate authority of Scripture. All ordained Presbyterian ministers are required to preach, teach, and defend what the Westminster Confession says. This requirement of subscription is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the truth and the protection of our churches. The confession keeps us in check. It’s like the guardrails that keeps us from going off the tracks into doctrinal error, heresy, and sin. The Westminster Confession provides a much needed accountability partner for pastors, churches, and the whole denomination. When we abandon our fidelity to our Confession, serious corruption looms ahead in the not-so-distant future. So I highly recommend that all of you take the time to read through the Westminster Confession, or at least the sections most interesting to you ( it’s available Here ). There are sections on the doctrine of God, the person and work of Christ, God’s covenant with his people, free will, sin, the new birth, justification, God’s law, good works, baptism, the Sabbath, worship, marriage, the second coming, and so much more. If you want to understand what our denomination believes and what the Forks of the Brandywine is committed to uphold in all that we do, the best source you can consult is the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is the faith of our Puritan and Presbyterian forefathers, it was the faith of those who founded the Forks in the 1730s, and, Lord willing, it will be the faith we confess before the very judgment seat of God on the last day. Grace and peace, Pastor Wesley
